


Simple Trust

by Arianwen44



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions
Genre: LOTS OF PLOT!!, M/M, Pokemon Battle, Rewrite, This mostly follows the main story for Black and White, bringing back an old fanfiction favourite!, lots and lots of cute fluffies, mostly cute fluffies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 14:47:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6663034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arianwen44/pseuds/Arianwen44
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Touya has set out on his Pokémon Journey! Though timid and shy, he is ready for adventure. With Oshawott at his side he feels like he can do almost anything, including take on the evil Team Plasma in order to stop their plans to liberate Pokémon from humans. </p><p>Touya must overcome his fears and his anxiety of the world, in order to blossom, not just as a trainer, but as a person. Though its possible that the greatest treasure he could get, could also be the key to his greatest downfall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Journey Begins

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Simple Trust](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/89288) by Arianwen44. 



A warm thread of sunlight came through the window, landing on a bundle of blankets that stirred. The only visible human features that protruded from the blankets consisted of a mop of unruly chestnut hair and a few toes out the bottom of the comfortable blanket. The mass turned over with a low grumble, the sun becoming brighter through the window as a cloud moved away from the sun and cast more light beams on his face.

“Touya! Touya, get up! Professor Juniper is here!” the voice sounded far away, the boy beneath the blankets groaned and sat up, pressing the heel of his palm to his eyes. The light poured through his window now and settled over him on the blankets, warming him. Touya stretched and yawned widely, combing his fingers through his tousled hair and fixing his white shirt. He slowly rolled the sheets to one side and swung his legs over the side of the bed, getting up so he could step into his slippers and shuffle out the door to his room and down the stairs.

His mother was standing at the bottom of the stairs, “Finally! I was wondering if you had even heard me call, sleepyhead!” his mother had a warm, loving face and the same brown hair as Touya. Her friendly, accusing gaze made him smile sheepishly.

“Sorry, I was having a really good dream…” he scratched behind his head.

She just shook her head with a hopeless grin, “What am I going to do with you Touya? Always gazing into dreamland when the real world needs a kind, thoughtful boy like you,” she ruffled his hair and Touya beamed shyly “Anyways, Professor Juniper left this here, she said for you to wait for Cheren and Bianca to open them, then to go see her in the lab when you’re ready!” she handed Touya a brightly wrapped blue box with a green ribbon.

With an ecstatic ‘thank you!’ Touya, with newfound energy, raced up the stairs to deposit the package in his room. While he waited for his friends to arrive, he showered and washed up before re-entering his room. He then threw on his blue sweater over his black and white shirt, brushed out his still unrelenting hair and looked at his reflection in the mirror. A young boy of sixteen stared back at him, reddish-brown eyes now bright and awake, he was slender in build and had a slightly feminine look to his face. He tilted his head and smiled; satisfied with his reflection, once he was he sat down on his bed and flipped through a pokémon book while he did. 

Suddenly the door opened and Touya glanced up from his book to see a young boy come into the room. The same age as he, the boy had straight, bluish-black hair, and a pair of square, black-rimmed glasses. He walked right over and inspected the box that Touya had placed on his bed beside him, his smile excited, “I heard from Professor Juniper. We can have a pokémon?” he asked, amazement in his voice.

“Y-yeah! Isn’t it cool Cheren?” Touya stammered just a little, getting up from the bed and shifting to the side so that Cheren could look at the box a little closer. 

“Sure is!” silence followed for several minutes before Cheren spoke again, “…What’s keeping Bianca?” he tapped his foot on the floor, clearly impatient. Touya was more excited than he was, but he remained silent, not wanting to annoy Cheren with idle banter.

A loud, yet muffled commotion sounded at the door and a blonde girl in a green beret and a bright orange and white dress came scrambling into the room. “Am I a little late again? Sorry!” she trilled, earning an impatient grumble from Cheren in response.

“Bianca, I’ve known you for sixteen years that you have no sense of time but… seriously…” he shook his head but grinned despite his urgency, “Today’s the day we can _finally_ get a pokémon from the Professor!” Bianca smiled, but lowered her eyes and apologized with a short giggle.

Touya only shrugged and nudged Cheren in the shoulder, “It’s okay Bianca! We don’t mind waiting a little while, _right_ Cheren?” he glanced meaningfully at his friend, who looked over at him for a split second and his face paled a little. 

Cheren flinched, “Gah! I _hate_ it when you use that face Touya!” he shook himself.

“What face?” Touya pulled back, looking stricken and confused.

“You go all serious and it creeps me out, I don’t know why but it just _does…”_

After a bout of laughter, they all gathered around the gift box, Bianca, Touya, and Cheren. “Since they were delivered to Touya’s house he gets first pick!” she sang, with an agreeing nod from Cheren. Touya shyly stepped up to the box to untie the green ribbon, carefully lifting the lid he peered into the package.

Inside lay three poké balls, each with a small label attached describing the pokémon inside each one. There was a note beside the box that he read quickly and turned his attention back to the poké balls. Whichever he chose would be the pokémon that would go on his journey with him, so he had to choose wisely. He understood that it was a big decision, but it wasn’t as easy as many made it out to be. With the thoughts weighing on his mind, Touya reached for the poké ball nearest to the right side. Suddenly a sense of cold seemed to creep into his arm the moment his fingers touched the smooth surface of the ball. It felt like a gentle wave beating against him, and he saw a sudden glimpse of green and a tall stone tower that vanished into the clouds. Touya froze with a short intake of breath, staring down at the ball in front of him in shock.

 _What was that?_ He stood there, perplexed and in deep contemplation, trying and failing to brush the thoughts away while he stared at the red and white ball.

“…Hey? Hey! Earth to Touya!” Cheren’s voice broke Touya out of his short state and brought him back to the present, “You okay?” 

Touya glanced about, almost as if he couldn’t realize how he got there, “W-what?”

“Never mind, come on and choose your pokémon! We want to see!” 

Touya swallowed and nodded, picking up the poké ball and rolling the ball in his palm for a second. He then braced himself and tossed it into the air, the flash of light following the pop of the ball, when he opened his eyes again Touya saw a small Pokémon sitting on the bed in front of him. It stared up at him with its tiny, bluish-black eyes and cried out a happy:

“Osha! Oshawott!”


	2. A Chance Meeting

“No! Oshawott come back!” Touya yelled, chasing after the small otter pokémon. The very moment they had arrived in Accumula Town the little pokémon had perked up its tiny, dark ears and gone racing off in the direction of the square. On his flat feet the pokémon was surprisingly agile, dodging in and out between feet and legs, though it was constantly looking back to see if it’s trainer was following him.

When he finally caught up to the Pokémon, Touya could see that Oshawott was hopping from side-to-side at the edge of a sparse crowd. Touya took a moment to catch his breath, his hands on his knees as he bent over. Once he had his breath back, he looked up and shot a disheveled frown at Oshawott. The pokémon cringed at the look, expecting harsh words for disobeying his trainer. Instead, Touya scooped the otter pokémon into his arms and poked his nose with a playful frown.

“Don’t go running off like that again, okay?” he sighed with relief, “I don’t want you to get hurt, someone could have stepped on you!” the boy gave Oshawott’s nose an affectionate tickle, smiling when the pokémon trilled and squealed. He held the Pokémon to his chest, cradling him so that Oshawott was sitting comfortably in his arms as Touya turned his attention to the crowd.

Once he spotted Cheren amidst the people he weaved and ducked his way carefully towards him and asked, “What do you think is going on?” Cheren merely shrugged and kept his eyes trained warily on the men and women surrounding the crowd in the park. They were dressed strangely, in white and blue outfits with hoods that covered their faces. Strange flags flapped in the breeze on either side of the row of people, giving them the appearance of protestors. One of them moved forward and to the side as another man stepped forward. His hair was a pale, yellowish colour from what Touya could see, and he wore a white mask over his right eye that gave it a reddish appearance. His clothing was marked with strange orange and purple symbols that Touya wasn’t able to understand; the man frightened him. 

The man lifted his arms, his long cloak billowing about him, “…I would like to talk to you about pokémon liberation,” said the man, voice low and just a little bit menacing. A few mutters went through the crowd like waves when he spoke, “I am sure that most of you believe that we humans and pokémon are partners, that we have come to live together because we want and need each other. However… is that really the truth? Have you ever considered that perhaps we humans only assume that this is the truth?” the murmurs grew louder through the people.

 _What is he talking about? Pokémon are our friends! Of course they are!_ He thought, appalled at the man’s claims. He stayed quiet though, trying to keep nothing but curiosity on his face while the man continued to talk despite the unrest going through the crowd. “Pokémon are the subject to the selfish commands of trainers, they get pushed around when they are our ‘partners’ at work!” he continued, “Can anyone say with _confidence_ that there is no truth in my words?” 

Some murmurs of ‘Yikes!’, ‘I don’t know…’ and ‘No way.’ Passed about and reached Touya’s ears. His arms tightened a little more protectively around Oshawott. _I don’t force him to do anything, and I definitely don’t push Oshawott around!_

“Now, ladies and gentlemen, pokémon are different from humans. They are living beings that contain unknown potential, they are living beings from whom we humans have much to learn. Tell me, what is our responsibility toward these wonderful beings called pokémon?” 

Touya couldn’t see very well through the crowd as he tried to spot Bianca, wondering if she could hear all of this nonsense as well. In his search his eyes passed briefly over one figure concealed mostly by a taller man, the pale green hair caught Touya’s gaze for a second but he didn’t pay attention to it. He realized that it wasn’t Bianca’s familiar green hat so he paid it little heed.

“That’s right!” he was brought back to the speech at the front quite suddenly, “We must liberate the pokémon! Then, and only then, will humans and pokémon truly be equals. Everyone, I end my words here today by imploring you to consider the relationship between people and pokémon… and the _correct_ way to proceed…” with that, the man and his men in the weird outfits and banners packed up and left quietly, as they left the crowd dispersed into troubled chatter.

When they had all left, there was only Cheren, Touya and the green-haired man left standing there. Touya hadn’t seen any sign of Bianca at all, so he merely turned to Cheren with Oshawott shifting in his arms. Cheren looked confused, and Touya could understand his confusion. Touya felt as if everything he had originally known had been turned on its head and kicked around inside his head, he _loved_ pokémon, he didn’t want to hurt them. He hadn’t thought that catching and training pokémon could be seen in a bad light, sure he had heard bad stories, but he knew he would never treat a pokémon the way this man was saying trainers and people did. Touya’s thoughts were bothering him so much that his stomach began to tie itself into tight, uncomfortable knots, he bit his lip and sighed. Oshawott, sensing the anxiety in his trainer, shifted so he was facing Touya. The pokémon nuzzled him and uttered soft, comforting noises, the soft fur pressing to Touya’s chin. He turned his gaze to the pokémon and smiled, he didn’t understand what it was actually saying, but it was more of a warm feeling he got from it, and that was enough. Touya rubbed between Oshawott’s ears and it flapped its tail happily, he pressed his nose to the pokémon, _how can we be making them suffer, if they act like this to us?_

“Your pokémon, just now it was saying…” Touya looked up in surprise to see the boy with the green hair standing in front of them. His hair was long and tied back in a thick ponytail, now that Touya saw it closer, it was more of a pale jade colour. He was at least a year, maybe two, older than Touya and wore a simple white dress shirt and black pants. Around his neck Touya saw a strange, circular pendant with blue and orange edges, and on his head rested a black cap with a white front. The most startling thing about him though were his eyes, they were a calm, solid green that reminded Touya of new spring leaves on the tree outside his home. Touya couldn’t help but stare at him for a few seconds, before Cheren’s words wrenched him out of his thoughts again.

“Slow down. You talk too fast,” barked Cheren, “And what’s this about pokémon… talking? That’s a really odd thing to say,” Touya looked at his friend, he was acting rather rude and it wasn’t like Cheren. Perhaps he came across as blunt to most people, but he normally wasn’t this forward. Maybe it was the speech before that had shaken his friend, it sure had shaken Touya.

The stranger only rolled his eyes in Cheren’s direction, looking dissatisfied, “Yes they’re talking,” when he noticed the still perplexed expression on Cheren and Touya’s faces he looked as if he had expected such a reaction, “Oh… then you can’t hear it either, how sad.” He paused, then glanced away for a second and then back to them both, “My name is N.”

“I’m Cheren, this is Touya,” his friend raised a hand to Touya.

The boy pulled up, a light flush on his cheeks, “H-hey! Don’t go introducing me to—”

“We’ve been asked to complete the Pokédex, and we just left on our journey,” Cheren cut him off abruptly, “though _my_ main goal is to become the Champion!”

Cheren’s words disheartened N, or so his expression showed, “The Pokédex, eh? So…” his shoulders fell, “You’re going to confine many, _many_ pokémon in poké balls for than then,” he frowned and straightened himself after a second of thought, brushing back his hair with one slender, pale arm. Touya noticed the square-like bangles on his wrist as the gold caught in the sunshine, dazzling him for a split second. “I am a trainer as well, but I cannot help but wonder… whether or not pokémon are really happy that way?”

“Osha!” squeaked Oshawott, sounding angry with this. It was almost like he was saying _‘I’m happy!_ ’ but N did not say anything in response.

N suddenly stepped towards Touya, his hair curling around his face gracefully, the look in his eyes had changed, had hardened. Touya took a step backwards with a worried look on his face, the flush on his cheeks darkening just a little, “Well Touya? Let me hear your pokémon’s voice again! Lets battle!”

“Wh-what? I—uh, I don’t know…” Touya was nervous, his eyes looking everywhere but at N. He had only ever fought his two best friends before; he didn’t know what another trainer would think of him. He knew that Oshawott was confident in fighting, but Touya was never sure about it with anyone that he _didn’t_ know. He felt a tiny tug at his collar and looked down, Oshawott’s ears twitched and he gave Touya a cheerful ‘Osha Oshawott!’ while tilting his head to his trainer. He blinked, but then he smiled, keeping any trace of fear he had behind a slow, determined nod towards N.

At first, Touya looked as if he would lose the fight, N’s Purrloin was fast and Oshawott was thrown back several times. Touya ground his teeth together and the expression on his face started to change just a little, going from nervous to slightly more determined as he put his head into the battle. 

“Oshawott! Tackle!” he shouted, and Oshawott gave him an answering cry as it rushed Purrloin. Taken aback by its opponent’s sudden ferocity, the Purrloin was knocked back with a strong attack and was sent sprawling across the pavement. In that moment, N realized two things: he was in need of a Pokémon Center, and that Touya was a skilled tactician when he actually focused on the fight. This surprised N, and what surprised him even more at the end of the battle was his attitude change when Oshawott let out a victory cry and leapt into its trainer’s arms, knocking him down. Touya suddenly went from tactical and determined, to an excited, nervous boy in all but two seconds. 

“That was amazing!” he cuddled the otter pokémon, who hugged him back with squeals of pure delight.

The green-haired boy knelt with his Purrloin, returning it to its respective poké ball and sighing. He stood up and put the ball back into his back, ignoring the happy trills from the victorious team.

Touya looked up from Oshawott’s tight hug around his neck, he got to his feet and suck out his free hand, the other one currently supporting Oshawott, towards N. “You were awesome!” he smiled brightly at N, but somehow the other just flinched and ignored the hand with a cold laugh.

“Your pokémon seems to trust you…” he muttered bitterly, green eyes looking a little disinterested, “We will see how far you get.” That said, N left, turning his back to them and vanishing amongst the people still milling about after their battle. Touya blinked in confusion, retracting his hand with a very embarrassed look on his face.

Cheren approached him then, his Snivy walking beside him and nibbling on a treat, “What was _that_ about? He looked so offended,” he mused, the criticizing expression on his face following N’s departing back for a moment. Then Cheren elbowed Touya when he saw the blush on the boy’s cheeks, “I bet he likes you, is that why you’re blushing?”

Touya’s face instantly turned a bright red, “W-WHAT? N-no! How would you get _that_ idea?” he stammered, completely at a loss for anything else to retort with. Cheren just laughed and walked away in the direction of the Pokémon Center with Touya following him, stuttering questions and blushing with embarrassment. Oshawott, still sitting comfortably in his trainer’s arms, just squeaked with him and enjoyed the ride to the center.

 

* * *

 

N lay back on his pillow, staring up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. Purrloin was curled up next to him, her tail flicking back and forth amiably. He smiled as he watched her tail, and then returned his gaze to the ceiling. Pokémon and their trainers… The thought of pokémon having to do what a human ordered them to do sickened him, it was no better than slavery. He hated seeing a pokémon suffering, hated knowing that he could not do anything to help. _At least I can’t yet…_ the thought brought a grin to his face, _soon they will be begging to release their pokémon._

But there was something else that nagged his mind, a thought that refused to be buried amidst his quiet anger. _What of people like Touya? Trainers who treat their pokémon as friends? What will become of them?_ N frowned, the boy he had met today was a puzzle to him. The boy acted like he and his Oshawott had been friends for life, but the boy’s friend had said that they had just set out on their journey. Already, Touya’s pokémon had such a strong bond with him, and that confused N. He remembered Touya’s face after their battle, that blindingly bright, warm aura when he smiled. N blinked and swiftly turned over onto his side, disturbing Purrloin who mewled in surprise. He turned out the light, hoping to shut out the brightness of the memory with a good night’s sleep.

_I don’t understand, and I’m not sure I even want to._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man I forgot how much I loved this story xD Touya is such a cutie, I just want to cuddle a plushie of him forever!

**Author's Note:**

> This is a rewrite of my old fanfiction from fanfiction.net, if you want to read the old one then the link will be below, but I'll be updating the prose and the story details so this version will be far better!! Enjoy!!
> 
> I still love this pairing to pieces... <3
> 
> Original (old) fanfiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6867066/1/Simple-Trust


End file.
